(Transcript from World News Radio)
The agony and ecstasy of bringing a child into the world is widely regarded as one of the most special events in many people's lives.
In many societies it's an act shrouded in mystery and privacy; so intimate its details are often taboo.
Increasingly this most natural of acts is finding its way into the public realm - from reality television, to people recording births on smartphones and posting on social media.
Recently birth photography has become established as a profession - and it's polarising opinions, even capturing headlines around censorship.
In this special report, Karen Ashford looks into the world of a professional birth photographer and explores the experiences of two mothers who decided to document their pregnancy journeys.
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"(SFX of mother groaning twice, then camera clicks, mother groans . "Push right into your bottom, beautiful, alright are you going to grab your baby, yes" sound of water and mother exhaling. Alright what time has we got? Camera clicks."
There's the clicking of a camera as Indah Sanny gives birth to her son Phoenix in a spa bath at Adelaide's Women and Children's Hospital.
The entire pregnancy, including the moment of birth, was captured by professional birth photographer Victoria Berekmeri.
"Capturing that baby's first breath and all those elements of just after birth are extremely important for the genre, but for me personally I aim to get that shot of the mother that just shows you exactly how amazing she is and how powerful her body and her mind can be when they come together."
She began photographing births five years ago, after hearing comments from parents who said they'd never forget, but later acknowledged that memories can fade.
"Our culture seems to gauge big experiences in life by the physical impact that it has and the emotional story that is really what's important gets lost. And the thing about photography is it's really good at summing up a situation or a journey for somebody in a really beautiful way that doesn't try to dictate the story in any give direction - it just tells it as it is."
The process often involves photographs during pregnancy, as well as a week or two after the birth, to create a visual journey of this new life.
Ms Berekmeri says some find the notion confronting.
"Hm, you know, why would anyone want that? Why would you want to photograph that? And you do get some puzzled looks, but that's okay. It's a big deal to give birth, so why wouldn't you want to photograph it?"
New mother Indah Sanny took her own camera to the birth of her first child, but was disappointed with the results.
"Ordinary person taking photos probably doesn't have the ability to capture a moment like that, let alone knowing how to use a camera properly, so after that I thought well next time I'm going to do something about it."
She saw Victoria Berekmeri's work on Facebook and engaged her to capture her second pregnancy journey - even though some families and friends questioned it.
"I think people sort of, the first thing they think of is it's a bit graphic, and yeah some of it can be a bit graphic, but then you've got the pre-birth and the after-birth and like you say it's capturing those happy moments and intense moments and it's not all graphic."
The initial resistance by some hospitals against the presence of a photographer is diminishing as they receive more requests from parents.
Ms Berekmeri says many of her clients say they feel empowered and proud, the photographs giving them a new perspective of what they've just achieved.
She says others regard the public airing of the birth experience as a taboo, a reluctance that's not confined to any particular cultural or religious group.
"It's about desexualising the whole experience. It's about bringing it back to family values. There is so much value on a broader level, for our culture, if birth photography can be a little more mainstream. I can see, I think with all of my experiences and awards and everything that I've gone through with censorship, there is so much value in being able to share a woman's story with honesty and in a really tasteful way."
The awards and censorship she refers to go back to last year, when she was awarded Australian Documentary Photographer of the year and Australian Birth Photographer of the year.
The competition exhibition saw her winning portrait of a newborn still attached to her mother by the umbilical cord censored by the venue for being overly graphic.
It made national headlines and Ms Berekmeri says suddenly people were talking.
"That was sensational. Because what that did was it opened up the dialogue to society about is it okay, is it not okay? What do you think about this image - is it too much? Why would people want this?"
The incredible image polarised people - some were passionately for a picture they regarded as honest and natural, others were adamantly opposed to something they regarded as confronting and graphic.
Mr Berekmeri says the incident was a coming-of-age for the birth photography genre.
"It gave all those people who hadn't made up their mind and opportunity to do that. And that was social change. And it was really disheartening when it was taken down from Facebook because obviously people reported the image and the image was taken down , but so was the conversation - this whole social conversations - hundreds and hundreds of comments in these feeds were taken down which was sad - but for the time that it was up - my God! (laughs) It was brilliant."
The mother whose photograph sparked the controversy is Kirsty Williams.
"It didn't bother me if my face was out there - they were powerful and I knew , well, I didn't know exactly what they would do for Victoria, and birth photography but I certainly knew they would make a stir. I had someone compare my photograph to taking a trip to the toilet. And they should take a photo of that and call it art. There was a lot of negative that it should not be public, that it was an intimate moment between the baby and the mother and the partner and there a lot, a lot of negativity, but so much more positivity from it, saying it was beautiful."
But Ms Williams says there was a deeper, more important factor that has made her such a strong advocate for birth photography.
"I love my photographs. It's not been a public thing, but my daughter has a heart condition, so those photographs that Victoria took for me - my daughter was taken away from me immediately. I saw her for (begins crying) I saw her for about 30 seconds and she was gone for about 12 hours. Victoria came back to my room after I had had major complications, with the photographs on her camera, and it's not like a photographer would normally show you photographs before editing and before proofing them and the first thing she did when she came into the room was she flicked on her camera and she showed me my daughter."
Her daughter Brea is now two years old, and while she will need several more operations on her damaged heart, she's a happy vibrant child.
Ms Berekmeri says not every birth she photographs is conventional.
"I photograph Caesarians as well, with particular obstetricians that will allow it, and you know what? It really doesn't matter how a baby comes into the world, it is still the most amazing celebration that you'll have as a parent."
There are also situation where the baby doesn't survive, or is stillborn.
Ms Berekmeri says in such cases, photographs can be a powerful emotional support for parents.
"Whether it ends tragically or if it's a miracle, it's still important to capture the elements that you can and I do with respect. So I shoot a lot of stillborns or children in intensive care that aren't looking like they're going to make it. Generally the value in that is really high for parents - because they have something to hold onto. The minute you find out you're pregnant you start building this entire world around this child, it's huge, and so to walk away without anything to show for it when you leave that hospital except an empty nursery and an empty heart - I think having photographs is highly valuable."
It's a value she's trying to encourage across her fledgling industry.
While, birth photography is increasingly popular in parts of Australia, New Zealand and the United States, in other countries it's barely heard of.
Ms Berekmeri is in demand as a birth photography teacher internationally, and hopes that developing a strong pool of professionals will ensure that genre's reputation is sound.
"I think sharing knowledge, and raising the bar, and making sure that if you're going to do something let's do it right, let's do it respectful and follow the etiquette; we will all prosper far more than one person just going it alone. And all it takes is one person to stuff it up for the rest of us."
It's not a job for everyone - births can be unpredictable, and sometimes she has to drop everything at a moment's notice for a shoot that may take 20 hours.
But the end result, she says, makes it all worthwhile.
"A lot of women will actually send me their birth story, they'll type it up in a word document and send it to me and I'll put it with the pictures. And they will have this beautiful; big book that they can pass on 30 years down the track when their daughter comes home and says mum I'm pregnant, and there's tears and mum hands over this book and says here you go - this is your story. And that's what I do it for, that's what it's about."
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